Play the Slate NewsQuiz

With Jeopardy! superchampion Ken Jennings.

Every Friday I’ll be testing your knowledge with 12 challenging questions on the week’s news events, big and small, including happenings in science, sports, politics, and culture both high and low. The questions are multiple-choice, and time is of the essence: You have 30 seconds to answer, and as the seconds tick away, the question’s point value drops from 50 all the way down to zero, so you’ll want to click on your answer as fast as you possibly can. There’s no penalty for an incorrect answer, so feel free to take a guess if your puny human brain fails you.

At the end of the quiz, you’ll be able to compare your score with that of the average contestant as well as with the score of a Slate staffer whom I’ve talked into taking the quiz on the record. This week’s contestant is Josh Voorhees, editor of The Slatest.

The Slate News Quiz might seem hard some weeks, but that's unavoidable in a complicated world where so much happens every single week. In the words of the late Andy Williams, who left us this week, "There's such a lot of world to see." Good luck with this week's quiz, my huckleberry friend.

Question 1 of 12

The New Yorker reported this week that the next global superbug, first seen in Kyoto in 2009, will be a drug-resistant strain of what?

Question 2 of 12

What sad news event cast a pall over the normally mirthful Internet acronym LMFAO this week?

"We're not breaking up," vowed SkyBlu, one half of the electropop duo.

Question 3 of 12

Paul Ryan was booed at the AARP's annual convention Saturday for criticizing what?

Question 4 of 12

A new study in the American Journal of Public Health found that what had overtaken car accidents as the leading cause of injury-related deaths in America?

Question 5 of 12

The Internet reacted with horror this week to a press release claiming that a global shortage could increase prices of what commodity by 5 to 7 percent by late next year?

Drought-stricken farmers have been slaughtering an unusually large number of pigs this summer to cut costs.

Question 6 of 12

What invention of Carnegie-Mellon computer science professor Scott Fahlman turned 30 years old on Sunday?

Question 7 of 12

The NCB, or National Coordination Body, was allowed to hold a rare public conference for foreign diplomats on Sunday. What does the NCB coordinate?

Question 8 of 12

Last week, 85-year-old Cecilia Gimenez announced that her lawyers would be seeking her share of her town's newfound popularity among tourists. What did Ms. Gimenez do to bring in the tourists?

Gimenez is the well-meaning amateur painter whose inept "restoration" of the 100-year-old fresco made headlines last month.

Question 9 of 12

Residents of Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, now face fines if they don't do what each Monday and Thursday evening at exactly 7:30?

The city hopes that simultaneous semiweekly flushing will keep pipes from clogging.

Question 10 of 12

Amid social unrest over austerity measures, what European country now faces a crisis in its easternmost region, which has called for early elections to vote on secession?

Catalonia's economy is the biggest in Spain, and its movement toward independence has further destabilized the struggling Madrid government.

Question 11 of 12

What's the only state won by Barack Obama in 2008 that his campaign isn't contesting in earnest this election?

Recent polls of Indiana have found Mitt Romney leading by as much as 16 points.

Question 12 of 12

Over the weekend, Pakistan's railway minister offered a $100,000 reward for the death of whom?

You got 8 out of 12 answers correct in 20 minutes 30 seconds.

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September 27, 2012

Tuberculosis

Pneumonia

Malaria

Gonorrhea

The band of that name went on hiatus

The Comedy Central series of that name was canceled

The panda cub of that name died at the National Zoo

The virus of that name infected thousands of pre-shipped laptops

Obamacare

Social Security

The stimulus

Bingo night

Drug overdose

Falls

Homicide

Suicide

Marijuana

iPhones

Bacon

Pornography

Spam e-mail

The emoticon

Ctrl-Alt-Delete

Cat videos

Opposition efforts in Syria

Labor unrest in South Africa

Islamic clerics in Iraq

Domestic security in Russia

Open a taxidermy museum of her 125 deceased cats

Discover the Virgin Mary's face in a potato omelet

Repaint a church fresco of Jesus

Release a dubstep album

Practice birdcalls

Visit the cemetery

Listen to the mayor's radio call-in show

Flush their toilets

Greece

Spain

Slovenia

Italy

North Carolina

Virginia

Iowa

Indiana

The "real perpetrators" of 9/11

The makers of Innocence of Muslims

CIA operatives coordinating drone strikes

Replacement NFL referees

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You

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Josh VoorheesSlatest Editor

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Quiz Template by Chris Kirk and Andrew Morgan

Ken Jennings is a 74-time Jeopardy! winner and is the author of six books, most recently theJunior Genius Guides.